A Smitten Designer Runs After His Bride

Love Story

When Karina Santoros Lopez said she was going running on the beach in Barcelona, Ismael Lopez Medel rushed out to get shoes to join her. He got shoes two sizes too small, and though the 27-year-old from Madrid was not a runner, he did not complain about his feet hurting.

"I was too proud to let her know. You don't want to give away all your cards.

"I looked for every excuse to be with her," says Ismael, who had just met her that November 2001. "She was beautiful. She was funny…I loved her at first sight."

Not so for Karina. A minister at the Barcelona seminary, where Karina was newly enrolled, insisted she meet Ismael, whom he'd known in his church in Madrid. Karina, 28 and a native of Mallorca, was designing men's fashions and working with church youth before she entered the seminary. Ismael was full of himself, she thought. He lived at the seminary and he did freelance translation and graphic design work.

The minister assigned them to work at a youth camp for a weekend, during which Karina began to think Ismael was interesting.

"Before Christmas, I told her I wanted to be more than friends," Ismael says.

"No," Karina said. She wanted to concentrate on her studies.

He tried again over the holidays. "I called her and she picked up the phone. I thought, she must be interested if she picked up the phone," Ismael says. He offered to meet her at the airport when she flew back to the seminary. "It was Jan. 6, the Epiphany. I picked her up and there were fireworks. We went out; we didn't come back until seven in the morning."

"I started to feel something," Karina says, but "I didn't want to be distracted from my studies."

Living two doors apart in the seminary, they began having meals together. Ismael spent the summer of 2002 in Mallorca with her family, and at Christmas Karina met his family in Madrid, where they announced their plans to marry.

Ismael was offered a teaching job in Madrid and stayed home, commuting six-hours each way to Barcelona to see Karina on weekends. She completed her third year of studies in Madrid, and they set their wedding for March 13, 2004. They planned to celebrate with friends the night before the wedding, but the Madrid train station was blown, and they all went to rallies protesting the bombings the next night.

When Karina appeared in her gown for the wedding, guests gasped. She gave Ismael a tie to wear for the wedding and told him she was not going to wear white. The tie matched her breath-taking red gown, which was "the color of love," Karina says.They spent their honeymoon in New York City.

Karina entered the business sector in Madrid and worked 12-hour days. Ismael had begun working on a doctorate degree, combining his love of music and design, and spent a month with the designers for Dublin's U-2 band. His teaching provided a week of study in a different country every year, which he and Karina enjoyed together, before we had kids, Ismael says.

"She told me she was pregnant the day I had to give my doctoral dissertation," Ismael said.

In September 2010 Ismael became associate dean for Syracuse University's campus in Madrid. In charge of visiting faculty, Ismael became friends with a professor from Central Connecticut State University who introduced Ismael to his boss in March 2011. A job opened up at CCSU, Ismael applied and was offered the position in May, when their son Joel was born.

On Aug. 12, the family arrived in the United States, settling in West Hartford. They say neighbors have been exceptionally helpful assisting their adjustment.

"We always had a sense of adventure," Ismael says, but Hurricane Irene and the Halloween snowstorm made them question their limit. Having power restored on Nov. 6 was "the best birthday I ever had; there was heat!" Ismael says.

Ismael's assignment is for one year, but he is looking for another job to stay longer. "I want to know how this system works," Ismael says of higher education here.

The best part of their experience is "more time to be together. There is a very good quality of life here for families. We have time with the children," and each other, Karina says.

"As a couple it's taken us out of our comfort zone," Ismael says, but "It's been a blessing…It has been a great adventure."